Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator

Stories

  • Ancient incest in the sky

    Ancient incest in the sky

    In the Vedas, long before people knew about gods such as Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma, there was a story of how the god of heaven committed incest with the goddess of dawn, his daughter…

  • Men and women in Hindu mythology

    Men and women in Hindu mythology

    God cannot exist without Goddess. Goddess cannot exist without God. Indian author Devdutt Pattanaik sheds light on Hindu mythology…

  • About Indigenous People, Invaders and Immigrants

    About Indigenous People, Invaders and Immigrants

    Published on 13th July, 2018, in The Economic Times. In Canada the indigenous people reject …

  • 8 stories about Lord Krishna you have never heard before

    8 stories about Lord Krishna you have never heard before

    In his new book, Shyam, mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik finally puts together the whole story of Krishna. What you will read below is not an excerpt from the book, but eight things that Devdutt himself learned about one of Hinduism’s most popular gods…

  • The five holy men

    The five holy men

    They are often represented by the palm of the hand, mounted on a mound…

  • Transgenders in Buddhism

    Transgenders in Buddhism

    After attaining Buddha-hood, the Buddha went to meet his mother in heaven, and share his wisdom with her. In many retellings, in her new life in heaven, Buddha’s mother is a god with a male body, for she had earned enough merits as Buddha’s mother to gain a male body in her future life…

  • Why is Shiva represented by a sexual symbol, asks a new book

    Why is Shiva represented by a sexual symbol, asks a new book

    Shiva to Shankara – a book excerpt…

  • China’s Buddhist Goddess

    China’s Buddhist Goddess

    In China, a female Bodhisattva, Guanyin, came into being. This is her story…

  • Is Buddha an avatar of Vishnu?

    Is Buddha an avatar of Vishnu?

    For Buddhists, Buddha is not an avatar of Vishnu. For Hindus, he may be…

  • Momaji & other horse-riders

    Momaji & other horse-riders

    Such horse-riding deities are a common part of local culture in India…

  • Big, bigger, biggest

    Big, bigger, biggest

    The idea of measurement is a key theme in Hindu mythology: three measures of man are not quite the three measures of God…

  • Dr Pattanaik’s Events in the United States of America, 2016

    Dr Pattanaik’s Events in the United States of America, 2016

    The list of Dr Pattanaik’s events in the United States of America, dated between late September, 2016 and early October, 2016…

  • Mythology everywhere

    Mythology everywhere

    Mythological films stand between fantasy films on one hand and historical films on the other…

  • Unlimited Choice

    Unlimited Choice

    The Ramayana is not a text; it is an evolving tradition; the many versions only enrich it further. You can choose the one that appeals to you…

  • Where is the Sun?

    Where is the Sun?

    Brilliance at the workplace is often eclipsed by other forces…

  • When the ascetic overpowered the nymph

    When the ascetic overpowered the nymph

    He who never has sex tells society what kind of sex is appropriate and good…

  • Mythology of conversion

    Mythology of conversion

    Why Hindus never converted but now want to reconvert…

  • On Stories we Tell

    On Stories we Tell

    Humans tell stories, because we need to. They tell us who we are in this world by giving the world a structure. Stories transform us into heroes, villains, victims and martyrs…